“When I studied ‘The Untold History,’ one thing that really hit me hard was the history of our involvement in the Middle East,” Stone toldMiddle East Eye. “It was a nefarious involvement.”

According to Stone, the nefariousness began shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union when America – the world’s lone superpower – liberated Kuwait from an invasion by Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein.

“We never got out of there,” Stone said. “Once we were in, we’re in forever.”

The result of this perpetual engagement?

“We’ve destabilized the entire region, created chaos. And then we blame ISIS for the chaos we created,” he said, referring to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Sound familiar? We’ve been screaming this narrative for years – arguing that America’s interventionist foreign policy has succeeded in making our nation less safe, less free and less prosperous.

U.S. military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan has cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6 trillion – contributing mightily to our $18.3 trillion deficit. And let’s not forget the nearly 7,000 dead soldiers, or the countless maimed and wounded soldiers, or the soldiers who come back with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological ailments.

Protecting and advancing America’s core national interests – and its national security interests – would be best served by a foreign policy in which our leaders acknowledged that spheres of influence exist in the world, and that America cannot (and should not) attempt to control all of them.

Again … we can’t afford the cost in lives, money or loss of liberty and security.